How China became the world’s great oil power
Forget OPEC. The Chinese Communist Party now calls the shots.
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Chinese stocks of crude, fuels and polymers, though bigger than outsiders realised, are finite.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The Iran war has caused the largest supply shock in petroleum history. Yet even when fighting was most intense, oil prices never reached the US$150 a barrel many analysts predicted at the start of the conflict.
For this, thank a few governments. Soon after Iranian munitions made the Strait of Hormuz unpassable, trapping 14 million barrels a day (b/d) of crude inside the Gulf, petro-monarchs in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh directed an extra five million b/d through pipes bypassing the conduit. Ministers in Washington and Tokyo released a record two million b/d of emergency stocks; state-led rationing in poorer countries shaved off a chunk of demand.
